Bastille’s newest album, & (Ampersand) is out now! This new release is a collection of odes to historical, religious and mythological figures. Dan Smith, the lead singer, seemingly focuses specifically on pairings, be it pairs of people or concepts, and the album took this shape generally.
The album displays an intermingling of history with contemporary concepts of love and craft. & also draws on the connections between art, literature and music with science and invention; from figures like Emily Dickinson or Leonard Cohen to Marie Curie. This back and forth shift between past and present, as well as reality and mythology, is unbelievably immersive.
The opening song, ‘Intros & Narrators’, encompasses these themes. It seemed to me to be a prologue to this running metaphor of storytelling and the process of narration. It prompts the question of perspective, giving the feel that Smith himself is toying with the idea that he is an ‘unreliable narrator’ even on his own album. The jarring slowing tempo after the chorus back to each verse, allows for a reset in the sound that leads to a more subtle building of anticipation. This way in which the music flows mirrors the craft of writing and retelling.
“Be humble ‘round these stories”
This is a craft that Bastille honours and pays homage to, as the song deals with the notion of ego in storytelling. Should the artist be fully intertwined with their work, or should their stories speak for themselves? This is a question that becomes ironic especially with this album, with a focus on some of the key poets, artists, and musicians throughout time.
The first story that Bastille tells through the album is a classic allusion to Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. From the perspective of Eve, this song has a seemingly subtle feminist tone and comments on the injustice of Eve being historically blamed for giving into temptation in the Garden of Eden. This one has a slower sound with a rhythmic humming running alongside the instrumentals, which I really enjoyed — a solemn, almost condemning piece.
“Who’d have known that I’d be carrying our babies and our sins…had no mother, sister, friend/ You said, ‘calm down’ rolled your eyes at pain you’ll never understand”
The affectionate language and lulling sound against the subtle resentment was something that took me a minute to get my mind around — initially it came off as a burden that Eve was willing to bear as an act of bravery and integrity. However, the more I listened to it, I felt the underlying frustration, especially when viewing this song with a contemporary feminist lens.
The next song on the album, ‘Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky’, is definitely a favourite and one I was so excited for, as a long time Emily Dickinson fan. It’s from the perspective of Emily Dickinson’s younger sister, Lavinia. The song comments on Dickinson’s life as recluse and poet. It sounds quite a bit peppier and more uplifting as it confronts the misconceptions about the famous American poet, and paints a more imaginative picture of the talented and passionate subject. The tone and tempo build slightly towards the end of the song. In keeping with many other songs in the album, this song leads one to think about art and morality. In particular, It made me think about the ethical question of consuming content that was posthumously published, and the separation between art and artist.
The tone of the album continues to pick up with ‘Blue Sky & The Painter’. This song aims to raise awareness of climate change and ocean preservation. Smith told Music News that the song is about Edvard Munch “finally seeing a crack of light in life after a long period of darkness”. The booming instrumentals fading into slower but sharp, plucking, electric sound, gives this one an edgier beat.
“Felt like the clouds got tired of opening/ but, oh, i ain't felt light in a while/ is that a blue sky”
The music pulsates and becomes more triumphant with the first reference to light and the hopeful, blue sky.
‘Leonard & Marianne’ is another one that I'll have on repeat for a while. About the relationship between Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, this slower piano ballad deals with the difficulties and beauty of love and longing. It’s a classic, but nonetheless, moving story of complex love.
“I beg you, never take me back again/ ‘Cause you know just what you’ll get/ but I go there in my head”
The lulling sound with an interjection of string instruments mimics the push and pull connotations of love.
‘Drawbridge & The Baroness’ begins almost hymnlike, before building and developing into an catchy and passionate song. A new voice is thrown into the mix with the very soulful, ‘The Soprano & Midnight Wonderings’, which employs a very slow tempo. This song is so mesmerizingly melodic. It stands out to me on the album, straying from the other more upbeat songs, as something with a more gentle texture.
Things speed up with ‘Essie & Paul’, It feels like it’s building to something from the beginning. This slowly became a favourite the more I listened. The mantra-like structure to the chorus is just so hypnotising.
“If it's gonna make you happy, if it's gonna let us be/ If it's gonna hold us steady, then it's what I need”
The final songs, ‘Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her’ and ‘Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024’, move from history to personal storytelling and perfectly sum up the complexities of the album as a whole. Dan Smith described his reasoning for the impassioned tone, in an interview with NME, “some of these people’s lives are so unbelievably mind-blowing that the only way to represent that [is with something big]. When you’re talking about a ridiculously successful Chinese pirate who ran a piracy empire that rivalled the state, it’s so massive and I felt someone like Zheng Yi Sao deserved a big song”. This creates quite the contrast with the closing song on the album, a much slower and more personal harmony. Smith selected it from a book of poetry written by his father and even included his mother’s vocals, “I saw this poem called ‘Telegraph Road’, which is essentially about homelessness in San Francisco, and I turned it into a song”.
In addition to the release of the album, I highly recommend Dan Smith’s new podcast, MUSES, with Emma Nagouse. Smith worked closely with Nagouse to learn the stories behind these pairings and the two of them delve into this rich history on their podcast which launched this year.
